Toyota Corolla Paint Problems

Comments

We did not get rid of it - still have it, and will for at least another 8-10 years. Where did I say I got rid of it????

Recalls - that was mostly the accelerator thing, which the Toyota hate groups and the media wanted to be worse, but the fact is that if you did not use multiple floor mats and you used the clips as designed, you would have no problems. They had to make it more idiot-proof, which, yes, was a design fault. But the fact remains, even without the recall, if you used only one floor mat and used the clips, you would have NO problems. So this was not a huge problem, in my opinion. I am very concerned about safety, and watched this very carefully, but I was never concerned about my family's safety, because I used the clips and used only one mat.

We have zero paint problems. No scratches, a few stone chips in the bumper. I just waxed this car a week ago, so I know for sure. Take a look around the net - all makes' paint jobs have complaints. Understand that all manufacturers are using different paint due to EPA requirements. I have NOT noticed Toyotas having more scratches and chips than others. Your observation vs. mine.

European cars - much more reliablity problems than most cars, including Toyota, Honda, Ford, etc. Check Consumer Reports, True Delta, JD Power. Why do Europeans not buy Toyotas? They don't buy any? I will say that as a whole, they have different priorities (not reliability), and they also may purchase more cars built by their "home" countries.

I am not saying Toyota is perfect - no machine is. However, it is hard to debate Consumer Reports, JD Power, True Delta, etc. etc. If you have any real data sources to show that Toyota is not one of the most reliable brands, I'd love to see them.

Sorry about your luck, but one data point is not that meaningful. I listed my sources for my data that show Toyota as very reliable.

I am not interested in an attack, just stating some facts. And I am not employed in the auto industry, but I did buy Toyota stock at the height of the media blitz about the acceleration recalls. That was a real good move on my part!

I truly hope you get things resolved. Try a different dealer if yours is not helping you enough.

Whoa, holster your "pistol" there "Crystal", of course I noticed that I'm posting, what kind of question is that :confuse: ? Look we are all here are trying to help each other. Some of us have had great experiences with Toyota and a small minority of owners have had very bad experiences , but that shouldn't make you envious or jealous of other Toyota owners that are very happy with their cars. Accusations of them being a Toyota plant are just childish and paranoid. I love my Toyotas and have had great experiences with them, what's wrong with that? When you buy a lemon :lemon: we just want to help you deal with that, but don't assume all Toyotas are bad :sick:. I certainly understand that all manufactureres, (even Toyota) will experience some kind of manufacturing error and will produce a few lemons :lemon: now and then. Please don't feel obligated to read any of my posts, but others might want to.

I have a 01 and the paint looks like a 11 yr old car but no peeling anywhere. I am in the northeast so I get sun, rain, snow, salt..... and I never waxed my car, just go through auto car wash during winter to get the salt and crud off. I also have a 05 ody and the paint look just fine, with the regular dings from the highway, but again no peel.

here's one simple thing you can do: collect some rain water from where you live and throw a litmus paper in it to check the acidity level.

One of my Corollas is a "01" black mica LE. I just waxed it yesterday and I must say it looks very, very good for an eleven year old car. It actually has that showroom gloss yet. All I do is apply "Nu-Finish" once per year and they actually bead up for most of the year. I must admit this "01" has been garage kept for nine of those eleven years;this means a lot when trying to keep a car looking like new.

It is my experience and observations that I trust most. Recently I stop at different dealerships because I am really thinking of trading in my Toyota for another make. What I can see is many 2010 and 2011 Toyota Corollas that have already been traded in for other makes. Out of curiosity, I look at these cars and what I notice is tons of more chips and scratches than on mine! Today as I washed mine and while vacuum cleaning it next to me there was another Corolla 2011, but white. I was scared how the white looks like with all the scratches and chips that leave black marks. Mine looks much better but this does not make me happy with Toyota. At the detail shop which I use for waxing the car they say mine looks as if just purchased but I still know of all the imperfections on the car (bubbles, dust trapped in the paint, etc.)!

Obviously, it depends on what your idea of quality is. You admit that your has chips, correct? Why will you get chips since the quality is so high? I am not jealous of your cars. I am happy about you. Just I know for myself that Toyota does not meet my quality expectations. My idea of quality is different. For me 1-2-3 year old car should not have chips.

About the European market, which you can verify yourself, Ford is second in sales. Since Ford can please the picky Europeans with the "out-appearance" and reliability of their cars, obviously will be able to please my taste as well and will be my next choice!

Yes, you got that one right - there are a few stone chips, but no more than any other car I have had. We also live close to a quarry - lots of stones flying up from tires. EVERY car is going to get some stone chips from this. They all have to use the newer, water-based paint that is more environmentally friendly.

I try to by the highest quality car possible - that's why I use MANY sources of data, not just my own observations, which of course are much more limited than using CR, True Delta, JD Power, etc. etc.

Good luck with Ford - they have some positives, but also some negatives. I won't discuss the brand new (400 miles) Ford Focus I had recently on a business trip. Looked nice, but.... At first I thought the transmission may have been an anomaly, since my own experience is too limited. Except I looked at some other sources of data about the same car - my complaints were pretty common. But they are good, and getting better, hope yours is good.

What I don't like about European brands is the lower reliability. They are lower than most brands, per many sources. But they have their advantages.

I'll just leave it at that. Ford in Europe #2 in sales. Great. Toyota worldwide I think is #2, GM #1 in sales. Sales is a good indicator, but not the only one I look at.

Well, we need somewhere to discuss our feelings, however, i do not think anybody is trying to do anything but get some help, and that is why I am here. I have a 2003 bought new (one owner). and I have that dark blue, and same thing as all you others are having paint fading , rusting, cracking, and I take EXCELLENT CARE of my vehicle, in my family we have owned 12 NEW TOYOTAS, AND NEVER EVER did this ever happen, this is totally wrong, and I waxed it approx. 4 times a year cause I live in Florida and it gets hot. I have had 3 new toyotas myself, and this has never happened. And I understand the embarrassment of driving somewhere and people look at you like you are trailer trash, so I do get it, this should NEVER HAPPEN. So if anybody hears anything about a recall , please e-mail me at tunawitch40@aol.com, thank you very much, and good luck to u all.

Don't really think it's appropriate to label someone as trash because of where they choose to reside.

Anyway, waxing a clear coated car four times a year sounds like overkill to me. Perhaps your using something too harsh that might be removing the clear coat. There are cheaper polishing compounds out there that if they over used they will damage the paint.

Whether or not you think it's appropriate, they may still look at her that way. I came from that background and I know exactly what she means.

Do you assume she only waxed THIS Toyota in that manner? If she waxed the others in the same manner, then this particular one shouldn't be acting any differently.

On a side note, I have made acquaintances with someone who works with Toyota and he saw my car and agreed it's unacceptable. He will be seeing me this week at the dealership to see if they can do more for me. FINALLY. Wish me luck, everyone. I will post the results.

General comments (see 'Paint' below)I am one of the first ones to defend a good product, but by the same token, I won't turn a blind eye when I think quality has slipped.

I have owned Toyotas for thirty years, including four Corollas (1984, 1997, 2004, and 2009 [I also owned a 1978 Celica hatchback from 1982 - 2008]) and I have generally been a satisfied customer. In my humble opinion, the 2009 seems to have a slightly 'cheaper' feel overall compared to my 2004. Mostly small things like too much cheap-looking plastic in the interior, floating foam blocks in the front fenders (visible from the driver's seat with the door open), wheel wells without gravel shields, and even the fuel door is so light it feels cheap (lighter materials = better gas mileage?). I mainly bought the 2009 b/c of my past (good) experience with Toyotas and the excellent fuel economy. No mechanical problems to date other than a 'false' check engine code (cylinder #3), although i've read that water pumps in the 2009 may be prone to failure.

PaintThe in-service date for the 2009 is Nov 2008 an I bought it ('certified') in Nov 2010. It has blue streak metallic paint and looked great when I bought it as the dealer's 'make-ready' department did an excellent prep job. Once the dealer's wax (or whatever they used) wore off, I saw what I thought was an excessive number of nicks in the nose piece, but I assumed that the previous owner dove on roads with loose gravel.

The car has primarily been garage kept over the last two years (not sure about the first 2 years), although it does see some sun. While waxing the car last weekend, I saw a lot of small, mostly roundish areas of cracked paint (liked dried, cracked mud) on the trunk lid where I can see down to the primer. Other areas of the roof are also starting to 'crack', with some areas the size of a quarter. The paint on the top surfaces (hood, roof, and trunk lid) seem to have thinner paint than the sides, which are fine far. You would think that a chemical was spilled on the surface, but I know that is not the case. Seeing many other similar posts confirms my suspicion that it's just a low quality paint job.

Again, it's just one man's opinion - sorry for the long winded post, it's my first one, but I was compelled to finally respond after reading other posts where Toyota defenders suggest that this is normal paint wear.

All I can say is the EPA has forced ALL automakers to use different paint on newer cars, so it is hard to compare your older vs. the 2009. If we went back to lead-based paint, it would last and look good forever, but that has it's own worse problems. I don't see any complaints about rust, etc. so that's good. Check Toyotanation.com

No rust yet, but that will probably come later. The car is in excellent shape inside and out and has under 30,000 miles (I drive it about 6K/yr) and I thought I had a car to last another 20 years (I keep most cars until they drop - I also have a '92 Maxima), but I just can't live with bad paint (a pet peeve) so I will sell it to my son and move on. If he keeps it I'll probably end up having to pay for a partial paint job in 4-5 years anyway - can't win.

I'll visit the dealer's 'make ready' shop to see what products they recommend to retard the deterioration, but that's just a stop-gap measure.

I'll repost without the email so no one else is adversely affected. Totally informational, as was the original post on January 6th. verbatim...minus the email...obviously there are no ill intentions. just seeking information

Hi, I am new to this forum and ran it across it for the first time yesterday after being at the body shop to quote a paint job for my 06 Corolla. The paint is peeling so badly off the roof and I just saw it for the first time over the Christmas/New Year holiday when nothing could be done because everyone was off or closed. I am extremely upset as this should not be happening to a car of this age, regardless of the make or model. I have been the only owner of this car as I purchased it brand new. When I went to the body shop I asked if they had been aware of other Toyota Corollas with a similar problem and the guy said yes he had seen a few this way. He also confirmed that due to the nature of the paint peeling there is no way to just sand it and repaint that spot because there is obviously a defect in the original paint or the way the original paint was to adhere. Therefore it will be a minimum of $1200 to fix this problem because the entire roof has to be stripped and the windshield (back and front) has to be removed. And it is rusting! So time is of an essence. Would you please reply to my post about what you all have done regarding your issues? I am currently searching the internet to see if any legal actions that have been taken because this is obviously a wide spread problem over the course of many years. Please help! Thanks!

It was a nice bright day yesterday and while drying the car I noticed many,many rust colored spots on the doors, mostly below the trim line. Oddly nothing on the quarter panels hood,trunklid or roof. You had to be very close up to see them, from a distance with normal eyesight, you would never notice. You can feel some texture if you run your hand over the area. I am the second owner of the car and it only has 17 k km. What a shame. The car is white so really closeup they are quite obvious. Some appear on the sills, which are plastic right? So that's a bit odd. Maybe defective paint rather than metal rusting from underneath?My friend has a white 2005 Echo with similar symptoms. I suppose you could buff them off but would that be a good idea? Then some acrylic treatment?

Hi! I saw your post and my mom is having the same problem with her blue 2006 Toyota Corolla. At first we thought it was the heat of the Texas weather but we started seeing other Corollas on the highways with the same problem. Mainly blue ones like her. I tried doing research on recalls and came up with nothing. Have you had any luck on finding any further information?

I understand that Toyota is not backing their paint issues. I have been contacted by an individual that is researching it now. I am certain that she will contact you as soon as she reads this !!!!! My car looks awful and I am sooooo sorry I bought a Toyota !!!! Also watch her catalytic converter there are issues with them !

I'm so sorry I took so long to post back here. Very hectic several months. So this manager that seemed appalled at my paint job acted very aloof when I actually brought it in. He's not head of the Service Department and he basically just rolled over when they told him that it wasn't covered. So he brought me the name and phone number of the local company that does paint jobs and touch-ups for them. It's not an actual TOYOTA paint center. It's just a random place that does paint jobs for the general public. He basically said MAYBE they can give me a discount because of all the trouble. I explained to the manager that this company they were trying to redirect me to is the SAME company that already "touched-up" the issues on my car before we took it home. I remember about to take it off the lot, and noticing all these horrendous scratches on it. They took it to this paint company and we noticed they still missed several places, so they took it back to the same company. It looked good for a few weeks to a month. Then some of the scratches showed back up and new ones started to appear. I'm about to get rid of the car, but I know someone will notice all these random slices all over the car. I'm talking about the hood, the trunk, doors.. you name it. Ugh. Sorry I couldn't shed any extra light on this dark, dark tunnel.

I am so glad I found this forum!! I also have a 2006 Corolla with the same scratch type marks on my roof. It looks as if someone took a razor blade to it! I don't park under any trees and am very careful about washing my car. The 'scratches' are getting bigger and rusting. Please let me know what you were able to do about this. Thanks!

I have a 2005 Corolla with the same paint issue. I just got off the phone with Toyota's customer service department and they pretty much told me that because my car is past the 3/36 Warranty coverage (3 years or 36,000 miles) there's nothing they can do to help me. I'm upset that Toyota is not taking responsibility for an issue they're obviously responsible for. Are there any updates on a resolution for this? My car looks so awful, it's embarrassing! Estimates I've gotten to fix it properly have been between $1,200 to $1,600. Ridiculous.

Why in the world would you be upset with Toyota? They're exactly right, you're past the warranty. There's no "lifetime" warranty on auto paint. Granted most car paint would have lasted longer, but yours didn't so you have to live with it. Perhaps your environmental conditions where you reside even had something to do with the shorter paint life.

I'm not the only with this issue, clearly, there was a problem with Toyota's paint used during the 2005-2006 period. No, there's no lifetime warranty, but there is such a thing as taking public responsibility for it. I would be content if they provided a service discount to fix it, I'm not asking them to pay for it all. I live in the city, not out in desert so I don't see what "environmental conditions" out of the norm that my car could've possibly been exposed to...

I have noticed that many are have the same issues as I am regarding corolla paint problems. I have a 2012 corolla that I purchase new. While washing my car a large chip of paint came off the bumper. There was clearing no damage to the area. But, I have to say that in the 40 years I have been driving I have never had this happen. I contacted Toyota immediately and was told that they have had no complaints regarding this problem. I said to the representive, "really because I just got on the internet and within 5 minutes found many people with this problem" Her comment to me was "We have no control over what people post on the internet and whether it is factual or not". To which I replyed " So you are saying that several hundred people have nothing better to do than sit around and lie about this problem"? To say that I got no where would be an understatement. I then took my car to the dealership. They took a picture of the area and said that a Toyota representive would have to be called to take a look and determine whether it was caused by abuse of the car. Seriously? I am still waiting to see what happens. But, after all of the issues I have read regarding this problem , I have NO intention of letting go this problem easily. We'll see what happens.

This is scaring, isn't it? Try to attract the attention of the media. In this way you are helping yourself and many other Toyota owners. Why not do what Ford owners did? If you need my support, just let me know. I have the impression from observing the cars around me that Ford cars have much better paint quality. Mine, Toyota Corolla 2011 is so fragile, I am afraid to touch it and every time I look at it there is a new scratch. My neighbor's Ford, about 8 months newer than mine, has many dents but the paint is intact, so can be fixed. Mine, the lightest touch of a rock, thrown by my own car chips the paint and leaves a small white dot (paint chipped to the primer). The car has been on a highway just once so far and for not more than 10 miles. Is it normal to be afraid to drive your car on a highway? Is it normal to be afraid of scratches and chips and try to keep at least 2 cars distance from the car in front of you? Sometimes I am even afraid the police may stop me for holding the traffic.

I just spent a frustrating few hours at the dealership where I bought my 2007 Camry. I showed it to the service director who noted it but said mine was the only Camry he has seen that has this problem (He showed me the cars on the lot and said none of them have this problem!) and said that since it is out of warranty, he could do nothing about it. He told me to call the main office 800 number and that if they authorized it, he could get it done. When I called the central number, I was told that they have no records of any paint problems with the 2007 Camry and therefore they would nothing about it. The agent gave me a case number and that's it!
So do you think that Toyota is aware of this problem or not? If they are aware, how can they get away with this? Should I contact the Better Business Bureau or some other agency?

@drucker1 said:
I just spent a frustrating few hours at the dealership where I bought my 2007 Camry. I showed it to the service director who noted it but said mine was the only Camry he has seen that has this problem (He showed me the cars on the lot and said none of them have this problem!) and said that since it is out of warranty, he could do nothing about it. He told me to call the main office 800 number and that if they authorized it, he could get it done. When I called the central number, I was told that they have no records of any paint problems with the 2007 Camry and therefore they would nothing about it. The agent gave me a case number and that's it!
So do you think that Toyota is aware of this problem or not? If they are aware, how can they get away with this? Should I contact the Better Business Bureau or some other agency?